What aspect ratio for DVD?

[Adrian Tan]

I normally export in 4:3, and haven't had any complaints. But am I living in the past here? What proportion of TV owners now have a widescreen?

[Chris Harding]

Hi Adrian

I thought I was behind doing 4:3 in 2006/7 when everyone said I was crazy...Based on the fact that CRT TV's are no longer available here I would say why not give them a 16:9 picture...I switched 6 years ago and that was really late (everyone else was already shooting 16:9) Especially for weddings you do need a wider picture anyway for big bridal groups

With the price of LCD/LED TV's now, the only ones still running will be few and far between.

Since you shoot in 16:9 surely it makes sense to deliver in 16:9??? Full HD and even HDV is all widescreen so it makes little sense to crop the sides of a nice image to the old ratio ...Just for interest are you allowing framing on the camera so you don't lose what you shoot when it's cropped???

Chris

[Dave Partington]

We shoot and delivery 99% of our products in 16:9. Occasionally some one wants something for the web sized to fit a specific place, and very occasionally we get asked for 2.4:1 or 2.35:1 but usually it's al 16:9 since that's what the vast majority of TVs are now.

[Noa Put]

Originally Posted by Adrian Tan

I normally export in 4:3, and haven't had any complaints. But am I living in the past here? What proportion of TV owners now have a widescreen?

Really? Don't know how it is where you live but in my country 4:3 tv's are not available anymore and all clients I have visited the past years have 16:9 tv's. I"m really surprised your clients find a 4:3 delivery normal.

[Chris Harding]

Hi Noa

Adrian is on our East Coast (I'm on the West Coast of Australia) I haven't seen CRT TV's in the shops for years here either.

You CAN get away with a 4:3 movie on a 16:9 TV as long as you tell the DVD Player to always put in pillar boxes on the side. The problem I did have occassionally was the client had the TV set to zoom any image that isn't 16:9 to widescreen and then your video of the bride arriving looks really stretched indeed.

Apart from maybe very old retired couples, everyone here has an LCD at least!! The last bride that had a CRT TV (it was a widescreen one too) was back in 2008 I think...I know I gave mine to the junk man a good 5 years back as they were just gathering dust. We have verge junk collections a few times a year here where you dump all your junk outside the house and the council collect it for free...A few years back all you saw were old TV's ..nowdays even that is rare!!!

We are as updated in TV's as much as other countries!!! In fact the last few analogue TV transmitters are being turned off soon and we will only have digital so a CRT TV would be useless without a decoder. I think 99% of people receive digital HD now!!!

Chris

[Noa Put]

here I certainly couldn't get away with a 4:3 output, 16:9 has been the standard for several years, my father often films couples that are married 50 years and I hear him say some still do have old 4:3 crt tv's but that's an area I stay clear from because it pays very little.

[John Knight]

Originally Posted by Adrian Tan

... am I living in the past here?

Yes. Stop exporting 4:3 immediately. You should be ashamed. :)

[Adrian Tan]

Definitely do feel embarrassed after reading all the replies, but I do appreciate it. Thanks guys!

[Taky Cheung]

After watching everything in 16:9, now looking at someone's web site still showing 4:3 video, they look like a square to me! haha

I switched to 16:9 DVD in 2006.

[Noa Put]

There are a very few videographers in my country that have demo's on their site still in 4:3, I always like to look at other wedding demo's and the first thing that comes to my mind when I see that is that they have not updated their site for years, and that will be an impression a client get as well just because 16:9 has been a standard here for several years as well. Something to think about when you are using demo's online or showing it at the clients place, they will think you are not up to date with your equipment and might choose another one that is.

[Chris Harding]

Hi Noa

Even when I had 4:3 clips on YouTube and went out and did demos with clients on a big LCD TV in 4:3 I seriously cannot remember any bride ever questioning the aspect ratio!! They just liked the content and booked me, even though the picture had side pillars. On our Pay TV we still get heaps of 4:3 old sitcoms showing like MASH and suchlike and I guess what seems wrong to us videographers seems OK for brides. In fact I remember one groom (normally the more technical minded) was watch a beach wedding on his brand new 50" plasma ..shot in SD 4:3 and remarked how wonderfully clear it was!! (That was on my little Panasonic AVC20's with 1/6" chips too)

I think the 16:9 aspect was probably more of an advantage to me than the couples cos I suddenly could fit in more of the bridal party in 16:9 compared to 4:3.

I bet that no bride has actually questioned Adrian as to the image size...as long as the footage is in focus and the pink bridesmaid's dress don't come out orange, you are home and dry.

Chris

[Nigel Barker]

There seems to be a fashion among the more extreme new wave wedding video makers sorry wedding film makers to put black bars top & bottom on their 16:9 video for fake cinemascope effect. Not only is the framing screwy (tops of heads chopped off etc) but as they are not using anamorphic lenses they are throwing away 25% of the pixels. What's the point?

[Noa Put]

Originally Posted by Chris Harding

Hi Noa

Even when I had 4:3 clips on YouTube and went out and did demos with clients on a big LCD TV in 4:3 I seriously cannot remember any bride ever questioning the aspect ratio!!

I had the same response years ago when I filmed with my vx2100 and when the first big screen lcd's started to appear, people where still used to 4:3 and they just stretched any program to fit their screen. Now I would most certainly get a response.

[Noa Put]

Originally Posted by Nigel Barker

they are throwing away 25% of the pixels. What's the point?

Not exactly, that was the case when you filmed in SD widescreen years ago, my Sony vx2100 could do widescreen but it just would lay black bars on top and bottom of your image. If you would view this on a 4:3 tv those black bars would show as well but you would still retain the full quality, to retain that same quality on a 16:9 tv (meaning viewing it in 4:3 aspect ratio) you would get black bars on top/bottom and on the sides, only with such a tv you would look at it in 16:9 aspect ratio and the image would be zoomed in until it fit the screen, in that way you would loose visual quality.

Same applies with these cinemascope aspectratio, the image quality will remain the same when viewed on a 16:9 tv, it will just show the black bars on top and bottom, only when you have a tv that has this cinemascope ratio (I think Philips was the first to develop such a tv) you would loose image quality as the tv will zoom in on your image to fit the screen without any black bars.

If the top of peoples heads are chopped of in this cinemamode the guy filming did not take this into account while he was filming, then you should apply tape to your viewfinder so you know what will be showing afterwards, or you have to reframe every single shot in your NLE and that takes a lot of time.

I have tried this aspect ratio on one of my trailers, it does contribute a bit to that "cinema" feeling as this is the aspect ratio when you go see movies but you loose quite a lot of your image, if you are filming a first dance you need to stand far back just to get the bride fully in the image, even with a wide angle lens.

[Nigel Barker]

OK, I should have said that they are throwing away 25% of the image by covering it in black bars. It doesn't make any sense when most TVs are now 16:9 widescreen to produce videos that are about 1920x800. In the cinema a wide aspect ratio can make sense as it fills the viewers field of vision but for viewing at home it's nuts. OK, I suppose they are trying to make it look cool & 'cinematic' but they are still losing 25% of the image that was shot.